A United Nations-appointed human rights probe has indicted Syrian forces and anti-government armed groups for incidents of murder, rape, torture, widespread attacks on civilians and hostage-taking.
In its latest report delivered to the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva, the International Commission of Inquiry on Syria stated that perpetrators of the violations and crimes, which are still ongoing, are acting in blithe disregard for international law and accountability.”
“Referral to justice is imperative,” the report said. “There is no military solution to this conflict. Those who supply arms create but an illusion of victory, so a political solution founded upon tenets of the Geneva communiqué is the only path to peace.”
The panel expressed regrets that Syria has been turned to a battlefield where massacres are perpetrated with impunity and an unquantifiable number of Syrians have disappeared, while government and pro-government forces continue executing widespread attacks on civilians, murdering, torturing and them.
“Failure to bring about a political settlement has allowed the conflict not only to deepen in its intransigence but also to widen — expanding to new actors and to new, previously unimaginable crimes,” a part of the report observed.
To arrive at these findings, the Commission, which was established by the UN Human Rights Council in 2011 to investigate and record all violations of international human rights law during the Syria conflict, conducted 258 interviews and also relied on other forms of evidence between 15th May and 15th July 2013.
However, it admitted that it was yet to establish the veracity of claims on the use of chemical weapons, predominantly by government forces.
“It was not possible to reach a finding about the chemical agents used, their delivery systems or the perpetrators,” the Commission said. “Investigations are ongoing.”
It confirmed that in Al-Qusayr town, 450 people were killed. “Government forces conducted themselves in flagrant disregard for the distinction between civilians and persons directly participating in hostilities,” it said. “There is strong evidence to suggest that the siege on the Al-Qusayr area was imposed to render the conditions of life unbearable, weakening the armed groups and forcing civilians, who were so able, to flee.”
It also observed that although forces loyal to the government have a legal obligation to allow and facilitate the unimpeded passage of humanitarian relief, they have acted otherwise, instead committing war crimes, such as murder, execution without due process, torture, hostage-taking, attacking protected objects, besieging and indiscriminately shelling civilian neighbourhoods, and recruiting and using child soldiers in hostilities.
Paulo Pinheiro issued a statement on behalf of the Commission in Geneva, suing for hostilities to stop and imploring a return to negotiations that will yield a political settlement based on tenets of the Geneva communiqué of 30 June 2012.
“To elect military action in Syria will not only intensify the suffering inside the country but will also serve to keep such a settlement beyond our collective reach,” read a part of the statement, also signed by experts Karen Koning AbuZayd, Carla del Ponte and Vitit Muntarbhorn.
